Physicists Created the First-Ever Time Crystals

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A
time crystal, without going into much detail, is an object appearing to have
movement while remaining at its ground state — an idea proposed by
theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek in 2012. In an article published last month, we featured how “floquet
time crystals” were theoretically possible, according to researchers from the University of
California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

This
time, a team of scientists from the University of Maryland took the research
further by actually building a working time crystal. The experiment involved
creating a quantum system, where a group of ions form a ring shape structure
cooled to their ground state.

In
order to observe the unobservable perpetual spontaneous break in
time-translation symmetry of time crystals, the researchers used a quantum
system that evolves over time.

They
used ytterbium ions, chaining them in an out-of-equilibrium state that
localized them in a specific space, with spins interacting with one another.
Then, a laser was used to change the spin of certain ytterbium ions, one after
the other, creating continuous oscillation.

A study in Strange

The
results were surprising: after observing and allowing the quantum system to
evolve, the continuous interactions were occurring at twice the original
period. “Since there is no driving force with that period, the only explanation
is that the time symmetry must have been broken, thereby allowing these longer
periods. In other words, [they] had created a time crystal,” according to MIT Technology Review.

Spontaneous
breaking of time-transaltion symmetry.

Credits: J. Zhang, C. Monroe,
et. al/University of Maryland

Time
crystals exist as some sort of loophole in the law of physics, by existing in
motion without energy consumption — a spontaneous break in time-translation
symmetry — now made observable in time. However, in as much as the movement
made by time crystals do not use consume energy, neither can it produce
any. Also according to Tech Review, “Of course, it would never be
possible to extract energy from this motion – that would violate the
conservation of energy.”

The
experiment has been forwarded for peer review where the experiment will
hopefully be able to be replicated. Still,
in just a few years, what was first thought to be impossible was explained theoretically
probable and then proven really possible. The existence of time crystals can
help us work around the problem of quantum memory and push
quantum computing research further.